ALGIERS, ALGERIA—Keith Mokoape, a retired South African Army Major General, applauds African-Americans for their assistance in the bitter fight to end racist apartheid in his homeland.

Keith Mokoape, a retired South African Major General. Photos by Linn Washington, Jr.

Mokoape now hopes that African-Americans will help end the festering sore surrounding the ‘Last Colony’ in Africa.

The Western Sahara – an obscure country on the Northwest coast of Africa – holds the distinction of being the last colony on the African continent.

In a twist on colonization in Africa, historically conducted by Western European nations, the current colonizer of the Western Sahara is an African country — Morocco.

“Africa-Americans have a total responsibility to support freedom in the Western Sahara,” Mokoape said during a December interview in Algiers where he attended a conference on the plight of the Western Sahara.

Most Americans know nothing about the volatile Western Sahara controversy despite that nation’s location as the closest country on the African continent to America’s east coast.

Morocco’s occupation of the Western Sahara is rampant with brutality and discrimination directed against the indigenous population – the Saharawi – according to persistent reports from entities as diverse Amnesty International and the U.S. State Department.

“The same situation of men, women and children being beaten, jailed and killed that once existed in South Africa exists in the Western Sahara today,” Mokoape said, speaking in his capacity as chair of the South African Chapter of Friends of Western Sahara. “If we believe in justice, then we have to stand up.”

Morocco illegally annexed the Western Sahara in 1975 following the withdrawal of Spain, the European nation that took colonial control of the Western Sahara in the mid-1880s. The Western Sahara is bordered by Morocco on the north, Mauritania on the south and Algeria on the east.

Mohamed Abdelaziz, president of the Western Sahara government-in-exile, said, “Black Americans do not realize there is still a colony in Africa. The Western Sahara is not covered in the media.”

President Abdelaziz, during an interview in December, said, “This is a matter of justice and rights. African-Americans know the meaning of oppression and lack of freedom.”

Morocco has refused repeated demands from the United Nations and the African Union to relinquish its control over the Western Sahara…control that was secured by a military invasion accompanied by injection of thousands of Moroccan citizens.

Since 1975 Morocco has blocked the UN/AU supported referendum where the Saharawi would decide through democratic vote to either become an independent nation or officially a part of Morocco.

The Moroccan Embassy in Washington, DC, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Morocco controls 80+ percent of the Western Sahara, including its mineral-rich inland and coastal fisheries. Morocco uses the billions earned from exporting minerals and seafood to fund its occupation. Due to the brutality of that occupation many Saharawi now live in refugee camps located in southwest Algeria or in other countries.

Camp women walking.

“The injustices African-Americans suffer, we suffer here,” Mohamed Salem said. Salem, 29, born in a refugee camp, founded the Saharawi Voice.com blog in 2010 to “share” the views of Saharawi youth who are increasingly outraged at their impoverishment.

While the United States does not formally recognize Morocco’s claim of sovereignty over the Western Sahara, American support has both enabled and emboldened Morocco’s intransigence.

Similar to the military support America once provided, the white- racist government in South Africa, America provided over $1-billion in weapons to monarchy-ruled Morocco during Morocco’s 16-year war with The Polisario Front that ended with a 1991 ceasefire centered on conducting that referendum.

The Polisario Front is the entity representing the Saharawi. The Front had fought Spain and later Morocco.

The Polisario capture of 80 armored vehicles that Morocco purchased from the racist South African government led to retired Major General Keith Mokoape’s formal introduction to the Western Sahara controversy in 1987. At that time Mokoape was a ranking commander in the ANC’s army then at war with South Africa while the Polisario was at war with Morocco.

“The Polisario invited us to see how they fight and take equipment back to Angola to use against the South Africans. I kept in touch with them since then,” Mokoape said. Mokoape rose from an ANC foot soldier to the ANC’s Chief of Military Intelligence.

Mokoape, President Mohamed Abdelaziz and many around the world want the U.S. to pressure its ally Morocco to end colonization of the Western Sahara.

Lucy Offiong, a vice-president of the Nigeria Labor Congress, urged “all Africans” to support the struggle of the Saharawi against Morocco during her remarks at that Algiers conference that Mokoape attended.

“There’s been too much talk, talk,” Offiong said. “We need action on this problem. Restore freedom to the people of the Western Sahara.”

2 Comments

Algeria & South AFRICA Both a Rich and most corrupted regimes in Africa and the World tried to compare Southern Moroccan issue with the African American Historical events,well if that is the case you dumbarss we should take a real lesson of unity harmony and tolerance .America Now is Ruled by a Black Man ,not speaking of colonialism ,this is our Land long before any Occupation be it roman ,french or Spaniards.
Enough is Enough
lies and propaganda.

This article is full of lies and propaganda. I have personally been to the south of morocco and it’s definitely not a colony. People there speak the same language, have the same religion and same traditions!
Read and know history: there has never been a country called Western Sahara in the history of the region! Spain colonized southern Morocco in the 1800s and they simply got it back….

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NorthStar News Today, an online newspaper reporting on issues affecting men in the black community, draws inspiration from “The North Star”, a black-owned anti-slavery newspaper founded by Frederick Douglass in 1847. NorthStar News Today continues to honor Douglass and his courage.